loin back rib ??

[f.j. tedford]

What do you call the long strip of meat running across the top of the meaty side of the ribs? This is about 1" wide and runs 90 deg to the direction of the rib bones and often has a pretty good amount of fat under it, especially toward the wide end. Does anyone trim this or just cook until the fat is rendered?

 

[Chris Allingham]

I've heard someone call it a "strap", but I don't know if it has a real name. It's just a bit of the pork loin that's not trimmed off by the butcher. It is usually very meaty and I leave it on when I cook ribs. I know of one person that cuts it off because it can get overcooked or can curl up sometimes, and he felt he got a better result by trimming it off. My guess is that most people don't mess with it and leave it intact.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Kevin Taylor]

fj..

You sure that strip is on the meaty side of the rib?

What Chris explained, the strap, is on the bone side.

I have never noticed anything like this on a loin back or BB rib.

Spares are quite different. There is a large swath of meat that runs across the top. This is the brisket/chine bone and can be trimmed and cooked separately. Once trimmed, you have a St. Louis cut of rib.

I have a great sight that expalins the various types of ribs, but is of no help for this discussion. I will post anyway, just in case I missed something....

http://www.ribman.com/abtribs.html

 

[f.j. tedford]

Stogie,

I think this photo from Chris' BRITU recipe in "Let's Cook" will show the strip of meat pretty well.

http://www.virtualweberbullet.com/rib1_photos/rub3.jpg

Dead center running across the length of the rib bones. HTH

 

[Kevin Taylor]

Thanks fj!!

Maybe I am way off! If you look at a spare rib, on the bone side of the rib, there is a large strip of meat. I always thought that was called the "strap".

Anyway, the only trimming I do on any rib is to remove the larger fat deposits on any outside meat. Looking at the picture, I always leave that meat intact...as Chris mentioned.

 

[Jim Minion]

Chris Lilly from Big Bob Gibson's recomends removing that strap because it does have a tendency to dry out. I'm only offering this as differnt point of view, I have normally left it on also.
Jim

 

[f.j. tedford]

I might try removing it on one of the racks I'm doing this weekend and see how it turns out. I'll just cook it along side for a snack. As Jim mentioned I have notced that the strip can dry out on the surfce a little and sometimes detracts from the appearance of the rack. Usually, though there is enough fat under it to keep it pretty tender. In fact, I usually find that the fat between this strip and the rib meat is not rendered out fully by the timre the rest of the rack pull away tender.

Thanks all for the info.

 

[Chris Allingham]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Kevin Taylor:
[qb]If you look at a spare rib, on the bone side of the rib, there is a large strip of meat. I always thought that was called the "strap".[/qb] <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I believe the strip of meat on the bone-side of spareribs is called the skirt. You can see it in this photo.

Regards,
Chris